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Suspect says victim asked him to kill her

By John Bear and Jennifer Rios

Staff Writers

Posted:
02/14/2018 10:23:55 AM MST

Updated:
02/14/2018 06:53:50 PM MST

Joseph Michael Lopez, right, listens with his public defender, Jennifer Jones, right, as first degree murder charges are filed against him in the case of Natalie Bollinger. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

Bollinger

Suspect Joseph Michael Lopez, 22, was officially charged Wednesday morning with first degree murder in the December death of Broomfield resident Natalie Bollinger, 19.

17th Judicial District Judge Thomas Ensor ordered Lopez be held without bond in the Adams County Jail, which will be revisited at a preliminary hearing set for 9 a.m. April 27.

Adams County sheriff's investigators allege that Lopez initially denied seeing Natalie Bollinger die, and then changed his story to say she killed herself before telling police that he killed her because she solicited someone on Craigslist to help her commit suicide.

Lopez, who lives in Northglenn, told police he met Bollinger after responding to a Craigslist post in the "women seeking men" section of the website entitled "I want to put a hit on myself," according to an arrest warrant affidavit, on Dec. 28 and met Bollinger for the first time later that day.

The post does not appear to still be online.

Bollinger's boyfriend told police his Glock 9 mm pistol was missing from his home, according to the arrest affidavit. It was later determined that Bollinger died from a gunshot wound from a 9 mm gun.

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Police identified Lopez as a person of interest via phone records, and when they approached him to talk about the case, they say he replied that "he was pretty sure he knew what we were there for," the affidavit stated.

Lopez voluntarily accompanied police to a a substation for an interview and told them that he responded to Bollinger's post with a "fake persona" he used to convince her that he was a hit man who could help her commit suicide. He went into some detail about an application he uses to create such personas.

Lopez

Investigators say Lopez told them that he exchanged text messages with Bollinger during which she expressed a desire to be "executed" from behind and offered to bring her own firearm. Lopez told police that he intended to meet up with Bollinger and convince her not to kill herself, the affidavit stated.

He told police that he picked Bollinger up several hours later, but Bollinger couldn't find a suitable place to commit suicide, so he took her home after the two drove around together.

After police confronted Lopez with information taken from phone records that showed his phone had been in the area where Bollinger's body was located, they say he changed his story.

He told police that Bollinger asked him to stop the car, which she exited and walked to a wooded area where she knelt down and shot herself over his pleas that she not go through with it.

Lopez told police that he panicked, took the gun and Bollinger's purse and fled the scene.

Investigators again challenged Lopez's account, telling him that they knew Bollinger had been shot by someone else and had not killed herself.

Lopez told police that Bollinger finally convinced him to kill her, so they pulled over, walked to a wooded area, where Lopez said she knelt down with her. The two said a prayer together and then he shot her in the head.

He told police that he couldn't look at her when he pulled the trigger and didn't bother to check on her because "he was sure she was dead, according to the affidavit.

He took the gun and her purse and put it under the spare tire in his car. According to the affidavit, Lopez told police Bollinger said he could sell the gun later.

"Lopez did tell us that it was eating away at him and that several times he felt like just calling the police himself and confessing to shooting Natalie Bollinger," the affidavit reads.

Lopez told police the two didn't have any type of sexual contact and hadn't used any drugs.

An autopsy report stated that Bollinger had a potentially lethal amount of heroin in her blood at the time of her death.

She also had a history of methamphetamine and heroin use and a medical examiner located fresh needle marks on one of her arms.

The report stated that Bollinger had been shot once in the head at close range and her death was ruled a homicide.

Adams County sheriff Michael McIntosh speaks about the arrest of Joseph Michael Lopez for the murder of Natalie Bollinger as he is flanked by personnel involved in the investigation. (AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post)

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